Grambling State University - Tiger Yearbook (Grambling, LA)

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she’s 104-Year-Old Sara Crawley Boyd Oldest Living Gramblinite The 104-Year-Old Tigress An artist’s rendering of Sara Crawley Boyd. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since 1906 when Sara Crawley Boyd arrived at what is now known as Grambling State University. Last Dec. 2, Sarah, the only living member of a group of seven teachers who helped start GSU, celebrated her 104th birthday at the Vital Age Adult Day-Care Center in Rockledge, Fa. While her memories of Grambling are still vivid, she prefers to live in the present. “I’ve been blessed,” she said. She waved her hands in time with the music as the other center members whose ages average 79, sang ‘‘Happy Birthday.” Sarah was the oldest of seven children and an accomplished seamstress who had learned the craft from her mother. They sewed clothes for the city’s wealthy white families and she also taught sewing in schools and played the piano at church. In 1906 this proud Gramblinite married Leonard Letchee Boyd, a Tuskegee Institute graduate. Following the marriage, Boyd whisked her off to Lincoln Parish to help the North Louisi- ana Agricultural Industrial Institute—now GSU—get off the ground. Grambling’s founder, Charles P. Adams, had requested addi- tional help from Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee and he sent Mr. and Mrs. Boyd. The couple took the train from Alabama to Grambling. When they reached the Mississippi River, they had to spend the night at some little spot and Leonard stayed up all night killing bedbugs. The train stopped at the Grambling sawmill from which the town got its name. “We went all the way out in the woods to this building. There were Indians walking around there,” Sara recalled. She only emphasizes the positive and leaves out the bad things of the past. Sara no longer talks of hiding from the local Ku Klux Klan, which opposed having a school for black chil- 324 Tiger Life dren. According to her niece, Althris Shirdan, local farmers came to warn them once that the Ku Klux Klan was riding that night and they would all have to leave. She said, “They all hid out in the fields with their guns waiting for the Klan to come, but they never did.” During her seven-year stay at Grambling, Sara taught sewing and music and Leonard taught printing. “They were all country girls and they needed help,” she not- ed. “They were all poor people in need, but they were willing to share what they had.” Her husband established a newspaper on the tiny campus and it was printed by the students he taught and circulated throughout the town. During those tough days, most people could not afford the $5 tuition, so families paid with livestock such as chickens and pigs and with fresh vegetables. The Boyds never received a salary while at Grambling and Adams was never paid until 1918, when the school became part of the parish school system. According to Sara, for a Christmas present her mother-in-law sent them live chickens and ducks to help them make it into the next year. “We started with just an old piece of a building,” she said. “We divided the porch in half and the Adamses lived on one side and we lived on the other. The students lived upstairs and classes were held on the first floor of the building.” Since there was no television or radio, families would often spend evenings sitting out on the train tracks telling stories and singing songs. To raise money for the institution, Sara and the students would put on fashion shows and her husband would take the school’s choir on tours to perform at area churches. One day her husband wrote the federal government to estab- lish a post office for the small community. This eventually led to the town being officially named Grambling. He became the first postmaster. Once the struggling school became more established, the Boyds moved to Charlotte, N.C, where Leonard was hired by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion publishing house. He later became a minister and eventually established a school for black youths who did not have homes or had become entangled in the state’s juvenile justice system. “I was mother to 500 boys during my life,’ Sara related. Leonard was named superintendent of the Morrison Training School, State School for Negro Boys, in Hoffman, N.C. There they remained until his retirement in 1943. Sara still gets dozen of letters from youngsters who tried to stay in touch with her and her husband over the years. The Boyds continued to live in Charlotte until Leonard’s death in 1967. Then Sara moved back to her family home in Montgomery, Ala. She has never let living alone or getting older prevent her from leading an active life. Her advice to others: “Be patient, regardless of the issue. Weigh the matter before you act. Live normally. Don’t try to outdo yourself. Exercise. And be careful what you drink.”

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Anthony Harris He Paints For Fun And Money Photos-Story By Eugene Calloway If you hear a hissing sound coming from the eighth floor of Drew Hall, don’t be afraid, for its not a snake. No, its Anthony Harris and his air brush. Anthony, a 19-year-old sophomore from Lafayette, N.Y., has been drawing all his life, but has only been involved in air brush art for two years. During recent Student Government Association election cam- paigning, this commercial art advertising major created numer- ous colorful banners and posters for candidates. Much of his work was displayed in front of McCall Cafeteria. Harris started out by watching Mexican and white air brush painters. Anthony practiced on things around the house and gradually improved to the point of being hired at a T-shirt store. “| paint most things free-hand, but for the really complicated projects | outline,” the artist revealed. He works in his room or on location. ‘“‘When you first start out it’s costly, but after the initial outlays then you only have to - purchase paint,” Anthony commented. An air compressor and air gun cost about $300. The paint runs about $10 per quart, which lasts usually about a month, depending on how much work must be done. T-shirts take about 15-20 minutes to complete and sheets require about an hour to an hour-and-a-half depending on what the customer wants. All kinds of people come to Anthony. They range from friends to students and from companies to private organizations. This creative Gramblinite has worked on museum displays, done murals at home and fashioned landscape scenes for the Department of Communications and Theatre. Although Anthony does a lot of work, he readily admits he has competition. “I’m not afraid of it. If people think someone else is better, they should go to them.”’ He added, “You can’t just come off the street and air brush. Unless you have had a background in grafitti art or some type of artistic background, you will have difficulty in the air brush field.” Harris creates many signs.

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Kevin removes a pipe from his “office supply’ briefcase. ‘Preppie LeQ’ Organization Is His Claim To Fame Students often have difficulty hauling themselves and a few books to class. Kevin Tyrone Mauldin, a social psychology major from Detroit, not only accomplishes the above task, but also lugs a barber shop and office supply warehouse to the lecture hall. This junior does it through the use of customized briefcases —one holding “a ton” of office supplies and the other loaded with barber instruments. One case is designed with education in mind while the other is for financial reward. During the summer of ’82, Kevin decided he needed more organization in his life. So he created his first ‘‘office supply” briefcase. “I did it for convenience purposes and to keep myself orga- nized in school work,’’ he explained. “I have everything | need in this case so there is no excuse for not doing my school work.” Kevin’s “‘office supply’’ case contains such items as a stapler, brass pipe, box of school supply paraphernalia, sewing kit, bi- ble, tool set, stationery, cards, lighters, baking soda, paper bond, sinus medicine, nail clippers—file, address book, photos, calculator, pencil sharpner, clock, tooth brush and paste, mirror and grooming supplies. In the summer of ’85 Kevin created his ‘“Groom Phi Groom” briefcase that complimented his part-time hobby—barbering. “Pye been cutting hair since 1981,” Kevin admitted. “It helps me pick up a little extra cash.” Known as “‘Preppie Le-Q the Barber,’ this Gramlinite says his grooming case has already paid for itself.